Submarines, Dragons and Hamlet in a Bunker: Nordic Avant-Garde Live Role-Playing
In the past 15 years, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway have developed a unique live role-playing game (larp) culture. Artistically experimental and politically progressive games rub shoulders with detailed virtual realities constructed in physical game spaces. Games are sometimes made for literally hundreds of players, have durations of several days or even weeks, and budgets ranging from zero to over a million euros. Yet the entire scene is driven by teenagers and young adults, primarily on a volunteer basis.
Nordic Larp has many ties to the theatre and contemporary art worlds, but its roots firmly in the gamer community, and today it is becoming a global influence in the field of role-playing. This entertaining presentation contains a very brief introduction to the history of role-playing games, many detailed case studies of mind-blowing Nordic Larps, and an introductions to some aesthetic and game design choices specific to the Nordic Larp Avant-Garde.
Johanna Koljonen was born in Helsinki, Finland. She is a critic, author and broadcaster, hosting her own cultural programme, P3Kultur, on Swedish Radio. She is a pioneering critic of live role-playing games. She has contributed three chapters and the introduction to the forthcoming art book Nordic Larp (Markus Montola and Jaakko Stenros, eds), Johanna has a BA in English literature from Oxford University and is enrolled in the Masters programme in Cognitive Semiotics at Århus University.
